Isolation and Characterization of Two Methyltransferase Genes, AfuvipB and AfuvipC in Aspergillus fumigatus

A. Abdo Elgabbar Mohammed   Kap-Hoon* Han   

Abstract

ABSTRACT : In filamentous fungi, velvet complex associated with the veA gene plays pivotal roles in development and secondary metabolism. In a model fungus Aspergillus nidulans, many proteins that can interact with VeA, including two methyltransferases VipB and VipC, have been isolated and characterized. In this study, we isolated homologs of the vipB and vipC genes in the human opportunistic pathogenic fungus Aspergillus fumigatus and named AfuvipB and AfuvipC. The AfuvipB gene, annotated as Afu3g14920 in the Aspergillus Genome Database (AspGD) database, consists of 1,510 bp interrupted with 10 introns yielding 336 amino acid-long putative methyltransferase protein. Similarly, AfuvipC, which is Afu8g01930, has 10 introns and encodes a polypeptide with 339 amino acids having a methyltransferase domain in the middle of the protein. To characterize the function of the genes in A. fumigatus, knock-out mutants were generated and the phenotypes were observed. Deletion of AfuvipB gene caused no obvious phenotypic change on point inoculation but showed smaller colony than wild-type when the mutant was subjected to culture on single spore-driven culture condition. However, AfuvipC deletion mutant demonstrated no phenotypic difference from wild type both in point inoculation and streaking cultures. These results indicate that the two methyltransfereases might have a redundant role and could be dispensable in normal culture conditions.

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by Basic Science Research Programs through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (2009- 0089716, NRF-2012R1A1A4A01012864).

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